The Four Phantoms
by Fraggranark
Summary: An apocalypse themed one-shot, my winning entry for Hobart's AICon. Hyrule lies in ruin, and the King of Evil gazes down upon the world he so desired with only the company of the awakened Hero. Neither plans to let it remain that way for long.


In the twilight between day and night, the fields of Hyrule seemed almost peaceful. The yellow decay might be mistaken for the gold of crops, and the lengthening shadows concealed the gaping wounds in the shambling beasts that continued to wander their home even in death.

Standing atop the stony hills separating the Gerudo Desert from the once-fertile fields, Ganondorf ran his gaze across the horizon. He sniffed in disdain only to wrinkle his features as the scent of rot invaded his senses. With a growl and a 'twitch' of his mind, the smell was warded away by faint waves of magic. Once, he might have hesitated to employ his power in such a mortal fashion.

"All that is mortal in our world is gone." He murmured, closing his eyes for a moment. Inside, he raged, but Ganondorf had not become a god through letting his emotions control him. "Do you not agree, Hero?"

Link paused in his approach, watching the King of Evil's back warily. He said nothing, but in truth the ancient sorcerer had expected little less. Throughout countless rebirths, the Hero remained a taciturn man, letting his companion speak for him. Ganondorf could feel no other presence beside the Hero's, so any ally had perished like the rest of their world. Either at the touch of the darkness which had claimed so many, or the hand of one of the cursed beings spawned in its wake.

"By what title are you known this time, Hero? The Hero of Death, perhaps?" Ganondorf let out a dry, sinister chuckle. "I think it fitting, for the man who brought about this disaster." He had not turned as he talked, but a dark smirk grew as he felt the Hero flinch. "Yes, Hero of Disaster does you justice. But I doubt there will be many to pass your legend on, Hero."

Ganondorf's sudden booming laughter echoed across the empty sky, trailing off eventually into a fit of bitter coughs when he ran out of air.

Silence. Ancient enemies, one nigh-immortal, the other locked in eternal reincarnation, stood in silence. The wind howled around them, eerily matching the two. Gone were the sounds of the fields, the snarls of animals the old Gerudo remembered from his youth.

'_Those are creatures of Hyrule. Remember that sound, young prince. Even the beasts of that land are free to live without fear, without cowering in a fortress of stone from the very land around them.'_ The long ago conversation whispered from the back of his mind. Kotake, or Koume, he could no longer remember which of his surrogate mothers had been with him. Possibly both. '_Remember how the sweet fields of Hyrule are touched only by the winds of life. While we suffer, buffeted forever by death, they are granted nothing but sweet bliss.' _

"I stood here, once." said Ganondorf suddenly. "I watched an endless ocean of green ripple in the wind, interrupted only by the golden wheat. I had never seen such a thing. So much life! Impossible, I had always thought. Plants were weak brown things, easily broken unless they were found in deep caves or under boulders. I used to wonder if that was why our skin was bronzed and dark, beaten and drained of life by the sun and the wind and the heat." He gave a rueful laugh, "Foolishness. A mere quirk of the blood, I have long since known. Still..." he eyed the rock beneath his feet. "I was young."

Watching the man he had 'slain' so many times, Link wondered why this was happening. Perhaps being brought to such ruin had changed something in the man he had defended the land against. Even a heart consumed by centuries of hate and evil might find a path to something more.

Ganondorf threw his arms open and his head back. "I wanted all of it. Hyrule Field. Death Mountain. Lake Hylia...everything." his hands clenched into tight fists. "No price was too high. No act too low. Magic written in blood, knowledge bought with souls." Shadows began to leak from between his fingers, writhing in the air. They streamed out, twining together in front of Ganondorf.

"It's not yours."

A twitch ran across Ganondorf's face as the Hero spoke at last. "It's no one's now, thanks to your meddling."

Still facing the dead fields, Ganondorf did not see the pain in Link's eyes. He could certainly imagine it, however. "I am not to blame. Your magic-"

"Was perfectly controlled!" Ganondorf spat. Link's mouth closed, stilling as he waited out the larger man's rage. "I mastered magic long before you were born, Hero. My spell was perfect, flawless. The land itself would be bound to me, and through my four phantoms I would have been Hyrule's master at last." The swirling darkness grew, hovering off the edge of the cliff as it spread towards the sky and the ground.

The sorcerer's anger did not phase Link in the slightest, and his own words showed it. "You tried to take the land I protect. You had to know I would stop you."

"Eventually." The dark man sneered. "But you would have been too late. The key to breaking the link was to be broken, guarded by each of my phantoms as they held dominion over the world in my name. Unnatural steeds, to carry them upon the wind. Weapons of darkness made real, such that even you would have been crushed. They were magnificent, my greatest weapons." The tower of shadows, stretching from beneath the edge of the cliff and high into the sky, pulsed in time with Ganondorf's own heartbeat. "And now...let me show what have _you _have wrought, _Hero_." He spat the word like a curse.

The air around them shimmered, and Link's arm shot to his sword. Around them, everything changed.

The once beautiful groves of the Kokiri lay in ruins. Some trees lay with trunks shattered, others withered from lack of water as they refused to draw on what was left for them. It took Link a moment to realise it was merely an illusion, a spell of far-seeing bringing a distant place to life around them, if 'life' could be used here.

Bile rose in Link's throat at the sight of the forests he had been born to so many times. They held a special place in his heart and he had been called to life to spend a too-brief childhood among the greenery of the forest more times than he dared hoped.

That forest lay in ruins. Bark had fallen from trees to reveal the discoloured wood and cracks leaking sap a dozen different colours. Branches were snapped and dripped with the same foul substance. Flies and other insects formed clouds around ponds filled with dead, diseased fish.

Link turned his gaze away, but in every direction he saw nothing save the same heartbreaking desecration. His chest burned with pain, and his knuckles were white with tension.

Ganondorf finally turned, admiring the pain on Link's face. "I should have done this myself, to see how it has affected you." He frowned. "But I suppose you normally lack all your memories, and it would be such a shame to waste it on one of you raised somewhere else."

"..." Link's teeth ground and he sent a fierce glare at Ganondorf. The urge – the _need_ – to draw his sword and pay the villain back for this monstrosity and many more was nearly stronger then he could resist, but he held himself back. He still needed to wait, or everything else would be in vain.

"No matter." The monster dismissed the issue without a moment's hesitation. The image shifted slightly, and they stood in a familiar grove deeper within the forest. Link forced his eyes to look away before he had to behold any more harm done to his oft-home. "Behold my former phantom."

Astride a beast that must have once been a horse, a leering monster watched his decayed domain. A skull pierced by a single skyward curved horn glared with eyes of sickly green fire, its jaw hanging limply open to display a maw of broken and discoloured fangs. Its armour was crafted from the hides of diseased beasts, draped over its thick frame. The Phantom lifted a sword in its right hand, a massive straight blade tipped with a scythe-like spike sprouting dangerously from the tip. The metal was spotted with rust, but sinister magic held it together.

They watched the Plagued Phantom for a few moments, Link barely able as it hunted down any plant that remained alive or seemed to be fighting off its infections. The very ground withered around it and a swarm of flies gave the Phantom a living cloak.

Finally, Ganondorf had witnessed it long enough. "This is but one of the four traitors you have unleashed, Hero. It was meant to harness the abundant life of the forests and turn them to me, but now it is a thing of plagues and diseases. Nothing survives here which is not kin to the plagues." As his voice fell silent, the scene began to change again.

If the Goddesses were listening, Link thanked them for sparing him the sight of the village. It would simply be too much.

Instead, he was left to stare at the stone halls of the Goron. To the unfamiliar it might seem that nothing was amiss, but Link could tell something was very wrong. Nothing moved. No boulders stood and revealed their true friendly nature, no Goron rolled past. The image moved swiftly, traversing the tunnels of Death Mountain and soon they saw why. It took both of them a moment to recognise the unmoving boulders filling the massive hall as anything else.

The bodies of Goron lay in every direction. But they were wrong. Link lowered his eyes, inspecting carefully. He hated that he had to not do anything, to let nothing betray him, but he _had _to know what had happened here.

"They starved." He murmured in horrified awe. That was why the bodies looked wrong. These Goron had been starved to death, and the loss of muscle on their once-powerful frames was bizarre, rendering them even more rock like in their lifelessness.

"Not simply that, Hero." Ganondorf corrected him darkly. "They starved, and then they fell upon each other. Perhaps it was madness from hunger, perhaps they believed that since they could no longer eat ordinary stone their kin would satisfy them. I know not. But somehow, a race that devours the land itself was beset with famine. And _that _is the being which brought it."

Link followed Ganondorf's gaze, and nearly jumped back when he met the burning red eyes of the Starving Phantom. Unlike the Plagued Phantom, this one was little more than skin stretched over bones. Twin horns jutted from its forehead, slender but straighter then the last's. It clutched a sickle in withered hands, almost protective.

The Phantom's unseeing gaze swept past Link without pausing, searching restlessly for something only it could find. Where the Plague Phantom had been still save its endless mounted hunt for untouched life, the Starving Phantom was eternally moving. It moved with an almost desperate haste, shoving aside bodies and objects in its rush.

"I've seen enough" growled Link. "Take us away."

Ganondorf simply 'hmph'd.

"Take us away." Link snarled, angry. In Ganondorf's magical sight a wolf's head imposed itself over Link's, but was gone a moment later.

His mouth parted in a far too sinister smile, teeth gleaming in the dim light. "If it so disturbs you, Hero."

The air around them fell away, colours shifting wildly. Gone were the pale browns of the mountain's innards, in their place the once glittering architecture of the Zora's Domain.

The first impression was red. The water itself was stained scarlet, and littered with trash.

After the last two visions of death, this was hardly any better for the Hero. Ganondorf himself fought back his anger. To a child of the desert, a land of precious little water, the Domain had always been a place he coveted. It was the life of the fields that was the jewel of Hyrule, but the waters of the Zora he desired nearly as much.

"Don't speak." Link's voice trembled dangerously. For whatever reason, the ancient sorcerer complied, whether for fear for sparking conflict too soon or lost in his own emotions. "Don't. Say. _Anything_."

Gravity took hold of something, and it plummeted from above. It fell, tumbling from the waterfall until it hit the red lake with a great splash. It surfaced not a moment later, and Link stared at it for a few seconds before he realised the gruesome truth.

The broken body of the Zora sat in the blood-stained water, adding to the desecration.

"They fought." Link muttered to himself. "They fought it. Whatever your magic unleashed, the Zora didn't let it happen without a fight." It was a cold comfort for the carnage, for a lake laden with the victims of violent death.

Ganondorf scoffed. "You think so, Hero? Ha!" he spat, the drop of saliva falling down the unseen cliff he really stood before. "_Your _meddling, not my magic. They might have fought, but don't let your hopes blind you."

"What?" Link glared furiously at Ganondorf, teeth grinding. '_Only a little longer..._' he thought '_I owe them to see it._'

Ganondorf threw his arm out to encompass the Domain. "They didn't fight anyone but _themselves_, Hero. The oh-so peaceful Zora wiped themselves out." The force of his anger drove him, and ghostly images overlaid the present vision. "Brother against brother, sister against sister, they died. Look!" the sight of once-placid Zoras locked in combat surrounded them, giving no respite to the ailing Hero.

Seizing any weapon Zoras screamed madly as they attacked others around them. Within the depths of the lake a swimmer found his lover striking at him and soon began to respond in the kind as unnatural rage consumed them both. The guards in their beautifully crafted armour became butchers, their spears and tridents dripping in gore.

Amidst it all, a figure loomed. Mounted atop a beast of metal bones, the Battle Phantom roamed across the room restlessly, light glinting off its burnished bronze armour decorated with grisly trophies and vicious spikes of steel. A pair of slender horns rose from left of its forehead and a third, far larger, jutted from the right. Its eyes, each socket burning with a sphere of cobalt flame. In one hand randomly swung a massive double headed axe through the air, occasionally carving through the frenzied Zora while in the other it wielded a great warhammer.

The Battle Phantom charged to-and-fro, striking madly. Riding through the air, it roared in insane delight while blood-maddened Zora burst from the lake, attacking each other as much as they did the Phanton. But they did nothing, weapons bouncing from the magical armour, and the beast simply slew them.

Panting, Ganondorf let the images fade. He turned his back to Link again, finding little joy in the Hero's expression as he struggled to cope with the shock and pain.

"So you see, _Hero_." With a wave of his hand, it began to change again.

Something stirred in Link and he looked up, staring at the top of the waterfall before it was gone. Pacing restlessly at the edge of the fall, the Battle Phantom never saw them. But Link saw it, and in his heart he hated it.

"And now, we come to the end of our little tour." Ganondorf snarled, lifting his hands to sky as the buildings of Hyrule Town began to come into focus around them. "At last, see what you have done to jewel in the crown of Hyrule. See it, _Hero_, and despair!" he roared, his chest shaking at his rage.

They stood on the ramparts of the wall separating Hyrule Castle from the city, the centre of the nation open to their eyes. Link stood above the settlement, and tears finally found their way past his stubborn refusal to give in to the grief while in the presence of his old foe.

"No..." he cried in a broken voice. "No! I...no..." his tears ran unceasingly down his face. Everything he had died for, died so many times, was gone. Memories rushed over him. The strange couple dancing away the darkest hours of every night. Agitha's house full of shining bugs. A store, run by a man who never stopped smiling. Dogs barking and yapping throughout alley ways. A woman with bright red hair, polishing a glass behind a bar as she shares a dirty joke with a patron. In the background, an old man traded stories with a blond swordsman, all the while keeping an eye on a youth with matching hair. Each one, every recollection from a dozen lives, cut his heart to pieces.

As he watched the Hero break down, shadows gathered over Ganondorf's face. "_Yes_. Does it hurt, Hero? To see Hyrule dead because of your foolishness? I'm glad you can remember everything now, because now you can remember how it started. You can see how this place grew from a village, as it became a town hosting the divinely ordained royalty. It hurts to see it gone from a bustling city, full of restless life to this. How every street is filled with people who lived their lives within its walls; who died within them."

Link's sobbing subsided slightly. "Yes. It hurts so much." he croaked.

Ganondorf's voice was a dark whisper, hissing into Link's ear. "Look how they lie there, almost as if they simply sleep. But look at it, Hero; look at the plants in every window, at the gardens and the pets. It's all dead, everything. Nothing is left, less even then the desert. This gem, this home to countless souls over the centuries, shattered. Because of you!"

The Hero was unable to bring himself to speak, just staring dully at the dead city. In the stillness, he had missed something but now his gaze was drawn down, to the city square that spread before the walls. Even the fountain was still and empty, but he barely noticed it past the being that stood before it.

Unlike its brethren, this Phantom was far simpler. Its mount was plain white bone, almost scrubbed clean in its whiteness. A black robe, draped its form, tattered to the point of revealing its ribs. Four horns curved upwards from its skull, each placed around it evenly. In effect, the Death Phantom's horns formed a bleak, pointed crown. A scythe hung limply from its hand, it's plain iron blade almost touching the ground, clutched by its beaten brown wood shaft.

Link looked into its eyes, but found nothing. Empty sockets gazed at the empty city. Were it not for the aura of despair it radiated, the Phantom could have been mistaken for a bizarre stature.

"I think you've seen enough." Ganondorf gave Link a dark look, something like glee entering his eyes. "Now, for the last act!"

Their sight was taken to a last place, but unlike the other times they had not gone far. Link's tear stained face turned, blinking uncomprehendingly at the white stone architecture. The walls were laid with engravings and frescos, each depicting part of the ancient myth of creation. When Din made the land, when Nayru gave the world law, and when Farore brought life to the earth were prominent in their size and intricacy.

Beneath them a plush carpet formed a path against the white tiles, leading down the length of the hall and up a short set of stairs. The bodies of courtiers, officials, plaintiffs and court scribes flanked the carpet like a morbid honour guard. Following it, Link felt his throat tighten and his heart take yet another blow.

The carpet terminated at the feet of a throne, and upon that throne sat the third of them, the last holder of the Triforce. Unmoving, as untouched by decay as every other corpse in the city, Princess – no, _Queen _- Zelda was left to stare blankly forever at the still halls of her palace.

No words would come to him. He could not even cry anymore, almost as if the grief was so great his body had given up hope of being able to cry enough tears to express it. Part of him had known, since he had awoken to all his memories, but he had denied it. It was impossible, Link had told himself. He and Gannondorf had survived, so Zelda must have as well. There was no reason that she alone of them should be slain like so many others.

But there _was _a reason, though he dare not give voice to it in his foe's presence, and it rested on the back of his left hand, hidden from Ganondorf's sight in her final moments. She had died to give him a chance. Died awakening the entirety of the Hero in her final moments.

Ganondorf opened his mouth to say something, but the dam inside Link burst. Power flowed through his body, lashing out in an invisible wave and the vision was shattered. They stood, at last, where they had started.

"So" said Ganondorf. He was now floating, lifted into the air by his mind's might. Before him a tower of shifting dark purples and pitch black shadows bound the land and sky together. Streamers of dark energy broke from the tower's surface to spread in every direction. "We have come full circle. You have witnessed what your foolishness has brought about. You have despaired, and I have seen you break down before the weight of your failure." As he spoke, tendrils of power broke and formed around his hands. "We are all that remain, and we stand in judgement of the other. For defying me, and failing your land, let me bring just retribution!"

He turned, hand stretching down towards Link. Like dark lightning, two streamers shot from the tower of darkness. They snaked through the empty air, making no sound. Link's head was down, his eyes locked on the ground and he seemed to neither hear the attack or the words of Ganondorf.

A cloud of dust erupted as they hit. The cloud's edge broke, a green-clad form hitting the ground and rolling. Link's bow was in hand as he came to his feet and before another second was lost two arrows were in flight, shot with deadly accuracy and inhuman speed. A third serpent of evil power lashed at the Hero as a fourth followed Ganondorf's direction, both arrows breaking harmlessly against it many feet from the vile sorcerer.

They stopped, exchanging a look that spoke volumes. Both knew the other had waited through the visions, each seeking something. Link had learned all he needed of the Phantoms, and now his eyes blazed with righteous rage.

Ganondorf sneered. "Not this time, Hero. Now, you are alone before me!" compliant to his will, a further four snakes of shadowy magic burst from the tower around the deadly wizard. "Alone before my Power!"

Link burst into movement, charging forward. Bow in hand, he sent more arrows into the sky, each bouncing from the villain's defense. He leapt, the first two streamers together forming a wave of darkness that ripped the ground apart. His free hand had his shield out before the third tendril hit, and it caught the attack on an angle, knocking the tendril up and Link down. Plummeting, Link twisted in the air and hit the ground feet first. The dirt under his feet broke at the force, but Link felt the power inside him absorb any damage he could have suffered.

The fourth tendril burst from the ground behind him, rearing like the tail of a scorpion about to strike. Link's lips twitched, fighting a smirk. It struck. He stepped to the side at the last moment, drawing his sword as he did so. A sudden spark of light, the Master Sword swung through the snaking energy. The touch of the blade seared it like the hottest of fires and the tendril dissipated.

Rage made Ganondorf's teeth grind painfully. Holding his right hand's palm, fingers spread wide, words that flittered through his hearing like half-real sounds of a nightmare slipped from the Thief King's lips. Light gathered in his palm, every second intensifying and every second darkening into an ugly shade of purple.

With a roar the magic was unleashed, a torrential blast of energy. Moving too fast for Link to avoid, he caught it on his shield, bracing at the last second as his bow seemed to vanish. Link strained against the attack, holding against the blast as it broke against his bulwark. He gritted his teeth, drawing on the power of the Triforce inside him. The power of Farore, gifted to the Wielder of Courage, filled his veins and with a cry he tore his shield away, smashing the wave of power back for a single moment.

It was all he needed.

The Master Sword cleft the air, striking the blast as it surged into the opening. A sun flared as the Sword of Evil's Bane met it and cracked its length, and Ganondorf cried out at the magical backlash, his attack shattered by the force of the holy blade.

But he had faced far worse, survived blows from the Bane of Evil itself, and recovered in a bare second. But Link was already moving, his long stride eating the distance between them. The Hero had changed weapons again with impossible speed, and he lifted his bow once more.

Invigorated by godly magic, the projectiles Link sent towards him now burnt with arcane flame. Cones of fire radiated from the tips, surrounding them in heat. A pair of tendrils shot out, each striking one of the two Fire Arrows head on and knocking them from the sky.

Ganondorf's sneer at the futile attack froze as he realised his error. Fired with the same incredible speed, a third arrow had been concealed by the flames of the other two.

A muttered word and a translucent sphere shimmered into being around him, catching the arrow only a foot from Ganondorf's chest. To his surprise it detonated, a wave of smoke, fire and force battering his shield. Dimly he recalled that the Hero had wielded such things, arrows tipped with Kakariko bombs, once before.

Roaring, Ganondorf lifted a hand to the sky and symbols began to form around his arm. Pulsating with angry power, the runes flared and dozens of orbs of purple energy appeared around his arm.

Link watched Ganondorf's hand drop and the orbs sail towards him. He dodged, feet always moving and body twisting with many life-times of experience and a body enhanced beyond the peak of human ability.

Even as Link danced through the attack, a final rune flared and an orb thrice the size of the others appeared, already moving at extreme velocity. Bursting from the hail of lesser orbs, Link caught sight of the last one and his expression became set.

A warhammer appeared now, a masterwork of steel, and he slammed the head into the orb, putting all his force behind it. The orb resisted, its side's bulging around the hammer before finally, after a moment lasting ages, giving in.

It was sent back towards it creator, but a heart of shining light now cored the orb with the power of the Hero. Ganondorf's eyes widening in surprise, he snarled defiantly and lifted both hands to face the sphere of shining brilliance. Fed by Link's will now, enhanced by more than just the Triforce of Courage, it grew into a massive shining sun.

The tower of darkness broke from the sky, bending down as it was drained into Ganondorf. His form bloated with contained might, and with a last uncompromising roar he struck at the sphere.

The world shook and bucked, the ground cracking beneath them. Panting wildly, his armour and clothes torn, Ganondorf had time for a single laugh at his victory before the Master Sword slammed into his stomach. He looked down, staring into Link's eyes, their gaze locked as Link drove his weapon to the hilt.

"...no..." he croaked. "You...you were meant to lose...you caused this...you...broke, it killed you!" he shrieked, his mask broken. "I saw it! Everything, all of it, everything I showed you! You were _broken!_"

Link released his grip, standing as Ganondorf fell to his knees. "Nearly. I nearly broke. But I had to learn of the Phantoms, and you were the only way. I can't let myself die, not while Hyrule needs me."

"Hyrule is gone!" Ganondorf, despite the pain radiating throughout his body, forced himself to stand. "And...if I can't have it..._no one can_!" he slowly, jerkily lifted his hand. In his palm a golden triangle formed. Crying in alarm, Link reached for Triforce of Power. "Never!" spat Ganondorf.

Before Link could touch it, the triangle shimmered and broke, shattering into four perfect triangles. They shot into the air, four streaks of gold that vanished into the sky.

On the back of Link's hand, the Triforce of Courage and Wisdom pulsed as they felt the last of them taken.

Ganondorf laughed hysterically, but hate filled every word. "Take it if you can! The Phantoms are bound to the land itself, and with the power of my Triforce, you will _never _restore it." Bereft of the key to his immortality, Ganondorf's body began to break down, turning to dust before Link's eyes. "No...hope..." with groan, his body gave way and the Master Sword fell to the ground in a cloud of dust.

Link stared at the remains of the once-great sorcerer. "You're wrong." He told the empty air, retrieving his weapon. "There's always hope."

In the silence, the back of his hand glowed.

He was the Hero of Courage, and that was all he needed to keep going.


End file.
